Patents and similar rights of exclusion (collectively referred to as “patents” hereinafter) may need to be enforced to maximize their value, or even to obtain from them any value at all. But before any enforcement steps can be taken, a patent owner may wish to perform additional analysis of validity of the claims of a patent or patents, as the case may be. Further, even before a patent application issues as a patent or is even filed, an owner of the patent application or invention may want to analyze the actual or potential claims of the application for validity. Similarly, other persons and entities may analyze validity of patent and patent application claims, for a variety of reasons, including defending against assertions of patent infringement. The meaning of claim elements may need to be ascertained or guessed, and then the elements and subject matter of the claims as a whole may need to be compared to the universe of products, publications, or whatever else is or was known as of the date of patent filing, invention conception, or possibly some other date such as a date between the dates of conception and filing. This process can involve a great deal of effort and expense on the part of the person or entity interested in the validity of the claims.
A need thus exists for apparatus, methods, and articles of manufacture that can automate the process of analyzing claim validity.